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d. 

V 




Titles: History 
uni ilsugz. 




A BIBLE STUDY 

BY 

SAMUEL F. COOK. 




LANSING, MICH., 
1897. 






PRESS OF ROBERT SMITH PRINTING CO. 
l/NSING, MICH. 


* 


4 




Tithes: History and Usage. 


For there is verily a disannulling oe the 

COMMANDMENT GOING BEFORE FOR THE WEAKNESS 
AND UNPROFITABLENESS THEREOF, 

For the law made nothing perfect, but the 

BRINGING IN OF A BETTER HOPE DID, BY THE WHICH 
WE DRAW NIGH UNTO GOD. 

Hebrews, VII, 18 and 19. 

The attempt which is being- put forth to 
inoculate American protestantism with the 
doctrine and practice of “tithing-”, seems, 
unfortunately, to demand some little atten¬ 
tion. False doctrines earnestly promulgat- 
ed by g-ood men are no doubt more danger¬ 
ous to the general good than any other, since 
the masses of those who are seeking after 
the truth, are influenced fully as much by 
the character of the man who for the time 
being is their religious teacher, as by a care¬ 
ful analysis of the foundation upon which 
the doctrine really rests. The modern doc- 



4 


TITHES: 


trine of tithing- as put forth in this country 
has grown, and has at present some little 
standing, almost entirely on the acknowl¬ 
edged religious characters of those who teach 
it, rather than on anything that can be found 
in the bible in its support. If it were not 
for the fact that some really good men 
believe and teach it, this doctrine would not 
be worthy so much as a passing notice. 

In order to a fair understanding of the 
subject, a careful analysis of the history of 
tithing, as it may be found by combining 
the facts to be obtained from both sacred and 
profane records, will be necessary. 

The most ancient record touching on this 
point is found in the book of Genesis, and 
contains the account of the giving of tithes 
by Abraham to the priest Melchizedek, who 
came forth to bless him on his return from 
the discomfiture of the allied kings. This 
record, which is relied on as the starting 
point in the genealogy of tithing, has some 
points so dissimilar, as to raise the query as 
to whether the tithing there mentioned had 
any relation to what we now know as tith- 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


5 


ing. Melchizedek did not wait for Abraham 
to come to him for priestly service, but him¬ 
self went forth from his city taking- with him 
bread and wine. As we know from profane 
history, it was the custom among* the patri¬ 
archs to cement friendship with their neigh¬ 
bors, and especially with those whom they 
deemed to be powerful, by ceremonials and 
religious rites, so the king of Salem, having 
heard of the prowess of the Hebrew, thought 
to win his favor and esteem; and in connec¬ 
tion with his present of bread and wine, 
volunteered a blessing. The patriarchs were 
priests by virtue of rank, and had charge of 
all the religious rites of their families. But 
Melchizedek was a worshipper, and hence a 
a priest of the Most High God. Whether 
the information furnished us in the epistle 
to the Hebrews was possessed by Abraham, 
we have no means of knowing; but it is safe 
to assert that his conduct on that occasion 
was not different from what was demanded 
by the customs of the time. It is stated 
that Abraham gave to Melchizedek “tithes 
of all. ” If the account had stopped with this 


6 


TITHES: 


statement, we could not well avoid under¬ 
standing it as saying that he gave to the 
king of Salem one tenth of the spoil which 
he had taken from the slaughtered kings. 
But we are informed that Abraham had 
sworn that he would not take even the least 
thing of the spoil for himself, and that every 
thing that he had taken was returned to his 
neighbors whom he had avenged, save only 
that which the soldiers had eaten. Of what 
then did he give tithes? or of what did he 
give one tenth? The answer to this question 
remains in obscurity: but from what knowl¬ 
edge we have of the customs then prevalent, 
he paid no real one tenth of anything, but 
simply gave his neighbor, in return for his 
politeness and the blessing which he invoked 
upon him, a very handsome present. It is 
proper to note at this point that whatever 
the amount of the gift to Melchizedek, it 
was a gift to him and not in any sense to the 
God whose blessing he had invoked. It was 
a personal gift to the priest, not to the Deity 
whom the priest represented. 

The first unmistakable case of tithing 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


7 


which the records furnish, is found in the 
vow which Jacob made at Bethel, on the 
morning- after his wonderful dream, and the 
promises which were conveyed to him by 
means thereof. This vow will be found in 
Genesis XXVIII, 20-22. It is as follows: 
If God will be with me, and keep me in this 
way that I go, and will give me bread to eat 
and raiment to put on, so that I come again 
to my father’s house in peace; then shall the 
Lord be my God; and this stone which I have 
set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of 
all that thou shalt give me I will surely give 
the tenth to thee. , 

In this vow we have alithe elements of a 
business arrangement. If the Lord will 
gratify his desires for earthly good, he in 
return will adopt God as his family deity, 
and will in addition give to Him one tenth 
of,—not the annual increase,—but one tenth 
of the whole of his gettings. There is here 
no promise of an annual tithing, a contri¬ 
bution of one tenth of his gross income to be 
paid over at stated periods, but simply that 
at some time he will give to God, if his 


8 


TITHES: 


demand for bread to eat and raiment to wear 
is complied with, one tenth of his posses¬ 
sions. But this business proposition which 
Jacob seems to have regarded as entirely 
proper, would hardly be becoming in the case 
of one who professes the religion of Jesus 
Christ. It was simply the equivalent for 
saying that unless he was fed and clothed 
and brought again to his father’s house in 
peace, he would find some other deity with 
whom he could make satisfactory arrange¬ 
ments. In pursuance of the plans which He 
had formulated for the instruction, enlight¬ 
enment, and final redemption of the race, 
God saw fit to accept the challenge which 
Jacob then gave, and carried out all the con¬ 
ditions on His part; but whether Jacob ever 
carried out his part of the contract we are 
left to wonder. It would seem that if God 
had regarded the giving of the one tenth as 
of any real importance, we should have been 
furnished with a record of the fulfillment of 
this vow, with a detail of the rites, cere¬ 
monies and liturgies attendant thereat. In 
the absence of any record in this regard, 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


9 


from what little knowledge we have of the 
Hebrew character at that time, it seems more 
than probable that Jacob entirely forgot, at 
the period of his prosperity, all about the 
vow which he had made, and never found 
it convenient to make the proper division of 
his estate, giving one tenth to the God who 
had made of him a great people. 

Whether there is or was any connection 
between the vow which Jacob made as to the 
one tenth of his property, and the require¬ 
ment in the Mosaic law that one tenth of 
the annual increase should be given to the 
Levites, is, as far as the scriptures are con¬ 
cerned, merely problematical. There may 
have or there may not have been the slight¬ 
est connection. At the time of the giving 
of the law at Sinai, all the world was given 
to idolatry, and the Hebrews themselves were 
so little removed therefrom that during the 
absence of Moses upon the mount, they 
demanded of Aaron that he make gods to go 
before them. They had been witnesses of 
the wonders which had been done in the land 
of Egypt on their account, they knew full 


10 


TITHES: 


well that all had been done in the name of 
the unseen God of their fathers, “the most 
high God, possessor of heaven and earth,” 
they had witnessed their own marvelous 
escape from the Egyptian hosts, walkings 
through the Red sea dry shod, but so gross 
were they, at so short a remove were they 
from the lower forms of barbaric life, that 
after a few days of absence on the part of 
Moses, they were ready to demand of Aaron 
some semblance of a God whom they could 
see and appreciate, “since as for this Moses, 
we wot not what has become of him.” It was 
absolutely necessary that they should under¬ 
go a long and severe mental and moral train¬ 
ing in order that they might finally be 
brought to a condition such that they could 
conceive the true character of the Jehovah 
who had taken them in hand for the purpose 
not only of making of them a peculiar peo¬ 
ple for himself, but also that he might ful¬ 
fill the promises made to Abraham and Isaac 
that he would not only make of them a great 
people, but in them should all the nations of 
the earth be blessed. 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


ii 


At the time of the exodus, the nations of 
the world had to a very large extent advanc¬ 
ed so far in wealth and refinement as that 
the religions which they professed were 
carried on with great splendor and elaborate 
rites. Each god and goddess had at their 
several shrines, large coteries of priests and 
persons assisting them in the sacrificial rites; 
many of the shrines were gorgeous temples, 
decked with gold and precious stones, fine 
linen and purple; rare spices and perfumes 
were in constant use, and no one might ap¬ 
proach the shrine as a worshipper or to en¬ 
quire into futurity, unless he brought thither 
gifts of value as well as the necessary beasts 
for the sacrifices. It was clearly understood 
that in order to appease the wrath of the gods 
or to secure aid or comfort therefrom, it was 
necessary to pay to the full extent of the 
ability of the suppliant therefor. The gifts 
were made ostensibly to the gods, but it was 
well known that in fact they were for the 
use and benefit of the shrine, i. e. of the 
priests. At some of the more popular 
shrines, vast wealth was accumulated, and 


12 


TITHES: 


the priests became at times, the very arbiters 
of nations, plunging them into wars, decree¬ 
ing destruction or prosperity at their caprice. 
The system of worship devised for the He¬ 
brews under the Mosaic code, had reference 
to all these things. In order that they might 
have the less occasion to turn away to the 
worship of idols, the tabernacle, and finally 
the temple with the service thereat, was 
somewhat more splendid and elaborate 
than that of any of the idol shrines. And 
yet, lacking only the idol, the counterpart of 
nearly all the ceremonials of sacrifice can be 
found in the worship of Jupiter and his 
numerous progeny of lesser gods and god¬ 
desses. In the tabernacle and temple, the ark 
and the mercy seat above it took the place 
of the statue of the god at the idol shrine. 
This, and this alone, marked the differ¬ 
ence between the worship of the Jehovah, 
in its outward forms, and that of the other 
notable gods. Instead of an image of the 
deity, Jehovah himself overshadowed the 
mercy seat with a cloud, which there re¬ 
mained the visible semblance of His power 


HISTORY AND USAGE . 


13 


and majesty; not to be viewed, indeed by 
any other than the high priest, but the peo¬ 
ple had the promise in the books of the law 
that as long- as they remained faithful to 
His service, His visible presence should there 
appear. 

For the carrying- on of the elaborate system 
of ceremonial worship provided in the Mosaic 
code, with the dignity and splendor necessary 
to duly impress a people so gross as were 
the Hebrews, not a few people were nec¬ 
essary, and hence a whole tribe was detailed 
for these duties. The tribe of Levi having- 
been set apart for the servital work of the 
ceremonial law, they were cut off from any 
landed inheritance among- their brethren, 
but were given a few cities to live in, with 
the pasturage adjoining on which to feed 
their flocks. They were cut off from the 
agricultural pursuits of their nation, and 
were to live on the taxes levied on the other 
eleven tribes. The law provided that every 
citizen should contribute in kind, one tenth 
of his increase, annually to the Levites. 
This levy included every class of product of 


TITHES: 


14 

the soil as well as of their herds. If this con¬ 
tribution, which was in reality a national 
tax. for the support of a national religion, 
lacking only the power of enforcement, had 
been due and payable but once a year, the 
Levites would have been without adequate 
support; but the provision for the bringing 
in of first fruits was intended to furnish a 
steady and continuous supply of everything 
needed for the comfort of a Hebrew family. 
Out of the tithes received by the Levites, 
they were to take one tenth for the main¬ 
tenance of the priests. It should be noted 
however, that the payment of this tax was 
accompanied with a religious ceremonial, as 
not otherwise could it be expected that a peo¬ 
ple fresh from bondage would pay a tax. 
The tithe was consequently made a “heave 
offering. ” This consisted in lifting up, near 
the great altar, the article; but under the 
wording of the law, the tithes were not offer¬ 
ed to the Lord, but were commanded to be 
offered before the Lord. He had decreed 
that they should belong to the Levites as 
their property. 


HISTORY AND USAGE. is 

This then, without going’ into all the 
detail, was the tithing of the Mosaic code. 

The whole Mosaic law was a system of 
justification by works,—the doing of some¬ 
thing in return for which the divine 
blessing was to accrue. The people were 
in no mental or moral condition to appre¬ 
ciate spirituality in life or worship,—to 
understand that “God is a spirit, and 
they that worship Him must worship 
Him in spirit and in truth,” and hence 
they were allowed to purchase immunity 
from the ills of wrong doing, by an elaborate 
and expensive system of gifts and offerings. 
To the system as devised, something anala- 
gous to tithes was an absolute necessity. 
The law itself gives but a faint glimpse of 
the elaborate ceremonials of the tabernacle 
and temple service; but from the writings of 
the Hebrew doctors, and a study of I Chroni¬ 
cles, XXIII-XXVI, we may obtain the facts 
necessary to an appreciation not only of the 
necessities of the worship, but of the great 
number of people required for its due and 
proper observance. That the payment of the 


i6 


TITHES: 


tithes was a necessity to the system, is shown 
by the fact that whenever the people fell 
away from their religion to such an extent 
that they failed to make these contributions, 
the Levites were obliged to turn elsewhere 
for their livelihood, and the service of the 
sanctuary was but feebly conducted. In 
other words, without the tithes, the system 
could not be carried on. The warnings and 
denunciations of the prophets for the fail¬ 
ure to make payment of the tithes was the 
natural result of the failure of the celebra¬ 
tion of the religious rites which could not be 
kept up without them. Unless the Levites 
were fairly supplied with the tithes, they did 
not perform the temple service, but turned 
otherwhere for the means of living. So it 
came about, not infrequently, that the 
Levites in not inconsiderable numbers, were 
engaged in the service of idol worship. 
Familiar as they were with all the forms, 
when the food supplies ran short and they 
were backslidden in heart, they became 
liberals in their religious notions, and served 
wherever their living was assured. 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


n 


Not only were the tithes a necessity to the 
system of worship, but they were for a special 
purpose in connection with that system, and 
could not be lawfully diverted therefrom. 
The service of the Levites being- a necessity 
to the system, their proper maintenance 
became also a necessity. 

The payment of the tenth for the support 
of the Levites, did not by any means compre¬ 
hend the sum of the required contributions 
to the service of the Lord. These were for 
the support of the service of a national sanc¬ 
tuary; the others were for the various forms 
of worship and the gifts to the poor. To the 
wealthy farmers, all these contributions 
came easily enougii when their crops and 
herds were thriving-, but for the man of limit¬ 
ed means and business ability, after the pay¬ 
ment of one tenth of his increase, there was 
a short allowance for the needs of his per¬ 
sonal religion. One of the very natural 
results followed the system; the really pious, 
those who believed in the Jehovah and his 
word, and honestly tried to comply with the 
requirements of this law of works, sooner or 


i8 


TITHES: 


later found themselves among the poor, and 
became the servants in the houses of their 
wealthy neighbors. 

After the return from the Babylonish cap¬ 
tivity, the covenant which was made under 
the direction of Nehemiah provided that the 
tithes should be paid directly to the Levites, 
but the tenth of the tenths, which belonged 
to the priests, should be carried up to the 
temple, unto the Lord. The declaration of 
the law that one tenth of the increase of 
each year was holy to the Lord and was to 
be taken to the sanctuary for the Levites, 
was necessary as one of the elements for 
securing the proper payment. Among all 
the religions of ancient times, whatever was 
holy to the deity it was an extreme of pro¬ 
fanation for the individual to use or even 
handle any more than was necessary for its 
conveyance to the shrine. The declaration 
of the law that one tenth of the increase 
should be holy to the Lord, in the conception 
of the times and the customs of all religions, 
took that increase out of the usable things, 
even if it was not contributed according to 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


'9 


the requirement. He who made use of aught 
that belonged to the tenth became, in his 
own eyes, a profanator, and thus liable to 
the especial vengeance of the offended deity 
for one of the most heinous of offenses. 
While there can be no doubt that severe pen¬ 
alties were inflicted upon the Hebrews for 
their laxity in the performance of this require¬ 
ment, the degree of compliance therewith 
marked the ebb and flow of the religious con¬ 
dition of the nation as well as of the indivi- 
ual. Just in proportion to the desire after 
God and His favor was the desire for the 
worship of God in His appointed sanctu¬ 
ary; and as was the desire for the sanctuary 
worship, so was the willingness to bring 
tithes to the temple in order to promote that 
worship. He who seeks after God with a 
loving heart, spares not of his substance, if 
by any means he may honor God and aid his 
fellow man. 

The prophets exhorted the people to bring 
in their tithes in order that their crops might 
be increased; but theirs was a religion of 
works. In their conception, in order to gain 


20 


TITHES: 


the favor of God, they must first do some¬ 
thing- to merit His blessing-. Unless they 
appeared at the temple with an offering-, it 
was useless for them to pray, even. The 
prophets, indeed, taug-ht the truths of a 
spiritual religion with the aid of the grand¬ 
est of poetry and the loftiest of eastern ima¬ 
gery; but that it fell far short of its purpose 
and was construed only in material forms, is 
plainly evidenced by numerous passages of 
the gospels. To the Hebrews, the Jehovah 
they claimed as their national deity was 
little different from the other gods in the 
manner in which His favor was to be sought. 
As is no doubt true in every age and clime, 
there were a few, even in the darkest periods 
of the Hebrew history, who knew and had 
daily communion with the “Father of lights 
in whom is no variableness or shadow of 
turning;” but as compared with the whole 
people these were so sadly in the minority 
as to be hardly appreciated by the mass. 

The law of Moses having become worn 
out as far as its efficacy in the salvation of 
men was concerned, and the world of man- 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


21 


kind having- arrived at a condition such that 
it could, if so disposed, come nearer to God 
and his truth than had theretofore been 
possible, a new revelation was made in aid of 
fallen man, “God sending his own son in the 
likeness of sinful flesh,” and thus making- it 
possible that the law of the spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus should make us free from the 
law of sin and death. This Christ declared 
that not one jot or tittle of the law should 
pass until all be fulfilled. The law to which 
he referred in that declaration, was cer¬ 
tainly not the whole of the Mosaic code, 
with its endless round of ceremonials and 
offering’s, nor even rules for the every day 
life of those who would seek thereby to g-ain 
the realms of the blessed; but rather the 
reference was made to the very essence of 
the law, which was contained in this, “With¬ 
out shedding- of blood there is no remission.” 
The aim of God even from the beginning 
has been to make a way of escape possible 
for fallen men from the results of the fall 
and the miseries of their own sinful hearts; 
and while under the Mosaic code this was 


22 


TITHES: 


possible of accomplishment, so enthralled 
had the people become by the idea that they 
were winning their salvation by the doing 
of good things and by refraining from the 
bad, that it became necessary to bring for¬ 
ward for sacrifice the “Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world,” the free gift of 
God himself in behalf of a ruined humanity. 
Having declared himself and his witnesses 
being assured, Christ paid the penalty of 
the accumulated sins of the world upon the 
cross. But ere his spirit departed the body, 
he declared, “It is finished.” All the 
requirements of the law given amid the 
thunders of Sinai had been satisfied. And 
when he had declared “It is finished,” “the 
veil of the temple was rent in twain from 
the top to the bottom.” This rending of 
the veil not only admitted to the most holy 
place other than the priest, but marked the 
entire closing of the regime under which 
the temple service with its sacrifices, rites 
and ceremonials had constituted the central 
point in the religious life of God’s chosen 
people. With the rending of the veil all 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


23 


the efficacy of the priestly office and the 
Levitical service was at an end. Both had 
served their purpose in the plan of God for 
the redemption of the world, but by the 
sacrifice upon the cross an end was made of 
offering's for sin, and hence neither priest 
or Levite had any farther place in the 
economy of worship or service. By the 
declaration of Christ, also, the law of salva¬ 
tion by works was most pointedly repealed. 

With the death, resurrection and ascension 
of our Lord, the law for the payment of 
tithes was abrogated. As before remarked, 
the tithes were a payment for a special 
purpose, and might not be diverted to any 
other. They were specifically declared to 
be the property of the Levites, save the 
tenth which they should contribute for the 
priests, and the law made special provision 
against their use for any other purpose. 
The incoming of a new regime under which 
the penalty for sin having been paid once 
for all by the sacrifice upon the cross, there 
was no Levitical service remaining for which 
the payment should be made, nor, indeed, 


24 


TITHES: 


any Eevites who might claim the tithes. 
Even if it be claimed that the law was not 
abrogated—pointedly repealed, by the dec¬ 
laration “It is finished,” yet the law of 
tithing is abrogated by the fact that there 
are no Eevites to whom the tithes can be 
paid. It will not do to imagine other than 
the one laid down in the law, to be the 
recipient of this service. To twist a law 
from its true intent is no better than to 
break it. If the authority of the law be still 
invoked for the payment of the tithes, the 
law must be followed in its strict letter, and 
the tenth of the increase must go to the 
Levites. If, indeed, under the law, pro¬ 
vision had been made that under certain 
exigencies the tithes might be used for other 
of the temple services than the benefit of 
the Eevites, there might be some leeway for 
those who claim that one-tenth of the 
increase should be paid into the coffers of 
“the church,” to be used as “the church” 
may see fit. But there is no such oppor¬ 
tunity given. 

If it be still claimed that since the law of 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


25 


tithes has not been repealed in terms, it 
should be remembered that from very 
ancient times the rule of law has been that 
a subsequent law which contravenes a prior 
one, repeals such of the provisions of the 
prior law as are in conflict. This rule 
obtained under the practice of the Medes 
and Persians, since in fact it was the only 
way in which their laws could be changed; 
and the Justinian code clearly recognizes 
the principle. In modern legislative prac¬ 
tice a repealing act is only of value as a 
warning that a statute has been replaced by 
something different; the rule being that the 
act bearing the latest date of approval, 
takes precedence over others on the same 
subject of a prior date. 

The religion of faith in the atonement of 
Christ being of a later date, repeals the law 
of the religion by works, by superseding it. 

That the apostolic college regarded the 
clause of the law relative to tithing as ob¬ 
solete, is evident to the careful student of 
the account given in the fifteenth of Acts, 
of the discussion and determination of the 


26 


TITHES: 


relation of the law to the gentiles. When, 
after a full consideration of the subject as 
to how far the gentile converts should be 
bound by the Mosaic law, they wrote to 
them, “For it seemed good to the Holy 
Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater 
burden then these necessary things; that 
ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and 
from blood, and from things strangled, and 
from fornication, from which if ye keep 
yourselves, ye shall do well,” they absolved 
them from every part of the law; the only 
requirements being that they should guard 
against any traces of sympathy with the 
worship of false gods, and lead moral lives. 
From the teachings of Christ as they had 
heard them, they were well indoctrinated 
into the creed of love to God and man, and 
this being well understood, there was little 
for the apostles to add. In his speech in 
opposition to those who desired to compel 
the gentiles to be circumcised and keep the 
law , Peter inquired with something of his 
wonted vehemence, “Now, therefore, why 
tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


27 


of the disciples which neither our fathers 
nor we were able to bear?” The insistence 
that the law of tithing- holds g-ood while 
the law of circumcision and the offering- of 
slain beasts in propitiation for sin is done 
away, is unworthy of any one who believes 
in the g-ospel of Christ, or has any familiar¬ 
ity with the principles of jurisprudence. 

So ingrained in the minds of the Jews was 
the belief that even under the reig-n of a 
Messiah all of the detail of the Eevitical 
code must be carried out, that during- the 
early stag-es of the Christian religion many 
of the believers at Jerusalem continued to 
comply with all the forms of the law, even 
going- so far as to offer sacrifices on the 
temple altars, by the aid of the priesthood. 
Even Paul, himself, had but just finished 
a seven days of purification and the offering 
of beasts, when he was arrested, and from 
which arrest he was not thereafter free. 
The epistle to the Hebrews is a masterly 
argument in combat of the prevailing con¬ 
ception among the Jews. The writer of 
that book declares, chapter VII, 12, “For 


TITHES: 


28 

the priesthood being- chang-ed, there is made 
of necessity a chang-e also of the law.” The 
change of the law which abolished the 
Aaronic priesthood, abolished the offerings 
of slain beasts. The abolishment of the 
offerings for the various purposes of prayer 
and thanksgiving, abolished the Levitical 
temple service, and hence the tithes for the 
benefit of the Cevites were also abolished. 

Outside of Jerusalem, there seems to be 
no trace of any practice bordering on tith¬ 
ing, during the first four centuries of the 
Christian era, and when the traces do begin 
to appear, they are with the earmarks of 
the emboldened march of tyrannical ecclesi- 
asticism. With the desire for power on the 
part of the clergy, came the demand for the 
means to build costly temples, the very 
existence of which necessitated, in the large 
cities, an increase of the assistant clergy, 
and the means to enable them to live in a 
manner comporting with their dignity, and 
finally the demand of the clergy that all 
contributions of the laity for every pur¬ 
pose should be placed in their hands, as 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


*9 


being better qualified to use them judici¬ 
ously. Finally, in order to have a firm hold 
on as much of the property of the laity as 
possible, that they might live in the style of 
princes, and cope with the civil rulers to 
better advantage, about A. D. 350, the 
ecclesiastics began to teach and enjoin the 
doctrine in the local churches, but did not 
secure the full sanction therefor, until the 
second council of Tours, in A. D. 567. 

Long before the doctrine of tithing had 
made any serious inroad in the Christian 
church, the ruling ecclesiastics had so far 
fallen from the simplicity of the gospel, the 
meekness of the Master, that when assem¬ 
bled in the great councils of the church, 
their actions and methods were worse than 
anything we can in this later day well con¬ 
ceive as possible among a body of men 
assembled for business purposes, without 
reference to the claims of the Christian 
religion. The condition of religion, morals 
and the general character of the councils of 
the early church may be best described in 


30 


TITHES: 


the words of Dean Milman in his History of 
Latin Christianity. He says: 

“It might have been supposed that 
nowhere would Christianity appear in such 
commanding majesty as in a council, which 
should gather from all quarters of the world 
the most eminent prelates and the most 
distinguished clergy; that a lofty and serene 
piety would govern all their proceedings, 
profound and dispassionate investigation 
exhaust every subject; human passions and 
interest would stand rebuked before that 
awful assembly; the sense of their own 
dignity as well as the desire of impressing 
their brethren with the solemnity and 
earnestness of their belief would at least 
exclude all intemperance of manner and 
language. Mutual awe and mutual emula¬ 
tion in Christian excellence would repress, 
even in the most violent, all unchristian 
violence. Their conclusions would be grave, 
mature, harmonious, for if not harmonious 
the confuted party would hardly acquiesce 
in the wisdom of their decrees; even their 
condemnations would be so tempered with 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


3i 


charity as gradually to win back the 
wanderer to the still open fold, rather than 
drive him, proscribed and branded, into 
inflexible and irreconcilable schism. His¬ 
tory shows the melancholy reverse. No¬ 
where is Christianity less attractive, and, if 
we look to the ordinary tone and character of 
the proceeding's, less authoritative, than in 
the councils of the church. It is in general 
a fierce collision of two rival factions, 
neither of which will yield, each of which 
is solemnly pledged against conviction. 
Intrigue, injustice, violence, decisions on 
authority alone, and that the authority of a 
turbulent majority, decisions by wild accla¬ 
mation rather than after sober inquiry, 
detract from the reverence, and impugn the 
judgments, at least of the later councils. 
The close is almost invariably a terrible 
anathema, in which it is impossible not to 
discern the tones of human hatred, of arro¬ 
gant triumph, of rejoicing at the damnation 
imprecated against the humiliated adver¬ 
sary. Even the venerable council of Nicea 
commenced with mutual accusals and 


32 


TITHES: 


recriminations, which were suppressed by 
the moderation of the emperor; and 
throughout the account of Eusebius there 
is an adulation of the imperial convert, 
with something- of the intoxication, it might 
be of pardonable vanity, at finding them¬ 
selves the objects of royal favor, and par¬ 
taking in royal banquets. But the more 
fatal error of that council was the solicita¬ 
tion, at least the acquiescence in the inflic¬ 
tion of a civil penalty, that of exile, against 
the recusant prelates. The degeneracy is 
rapid from the council of Nicea to that of 
Ephesus, where each party came determined 
to use every means of haste, maneuver, 
court influence, bribery, to crush his 
adversary where there was an encourage¬ 
ment of, if not an appeal to the violence of 
the populace; to anticipate the decrees of 
the council; where each had his own 
tumultuous foreign rabble to back his 
quarrel; and neither would scruple at any 
means to obtain the ratification of their 
anathemas through persecution by the civil 
government. * * * Christianity, which 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


33 


had so nobly asserted its independence of 
thought and faith in the face of heathen 
emperors, threw down that independence at 
the foot of the throne, in order that it might 
forcibly extirpate the remains of paganism, 
and compel an absolute uniformity of 
Christian faith.” 

The dogmatic utterances of councils made 
up and conducted as were those of the early 
church, as above described, can with but ill 
grace be held up as of any binding author¬ 
ity, among the protestants of these latter 
days. 

Emboldened as they were by every new 
success in their grasp after power, temporal 
as well as spiritual, and seeing the need of 
strong retinues of retainers in order to over¬ 
awe and overpower any incipient opposi¬ 
tion, the bishops realized that in order to 
cope successfully with the civil power they 
must have large and corpulent treasuries at 
hand and devised the plan of re-enacting the 
worn out, cast off system of a compulsory 
tithing, as the bounden duty of all the 
faithful. From this there was but a step 


34 


TITHES: 


to the enforcement of the civil law for the 
collection of tithes for the support of the 
state church, which became the rule under 
the reign of Charlemagne in the 9th cen¬ 
tury. The law thus established is the rule 
in all the countries of Europe, with the 
exception of France, which under the 
regime of the republic has been able to rid 
herself of this obnoxious statute. As prac¬ 
ticed in England for the support of the 
established church, rich and poor, saint and 
sinner, churchman and dissenter alike must 
pay the rates, even to the taking- of the last 
pig- or cow, or the scant furniture from the 
humble dwelling-. On the miseries of the 
poor of the sea girt isle, the lordly bishops 
revel in splendor, with incomes from the 
tithing rates which are ground with unre- 
lentless hand from those who have not the 
slightest sympathy with the form of religion 
which takes the bread from their children’s 
mouths for the glorification of men who but 
rarely preach the gospel to the poor, for 
whom Christ said that it was specially pre¬ 
pared, who evince little sympathy for the 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


35 


oppressions which are weighing- down their 
humble flocks, and which they are carrying 
out under the claim that it is in furtherance 
of the spread of the gospel of Christ among 
men. The crimes committed in the name 
of Christ and his gospel, during the cen¬ 
turies since the advent, make the heart sick 
at the recital. 

Lcclesiasticism, which in America has 
heretofore been under restraint, is now 
again asserting its greed for power which 
can only be hoped for when the funds under 
control are such as to overbear opposition, 
and the doctrine is put forth that payments 
into the denominational coffers is a “giving 
to the Lord,” with the farther declaration 
that since the Hebrews were commanded to 
bring one-tenth of their increase to the 
sanctuary, it is the duty of modern Chris¬ 
tians to set apart one-tenth of their incomes 
and pay the same into the denominational 
treasury for the furtherance of the spread 
of the gospel, while the clerics devise the 
objects for which the funds shall be used in 


TITHES: 


3* 

such manner as to aggrandize their special 
denomination. 

In the teachings of Christ, not one word 
can he found in support of the claim put 
forth, nor indeed, in the teachings of the 
epistles. While Christ made it very plain 
that our earthly substance belongs to God, 
His rule for its use is at a very great remove 
from any of our modern methods. Christ’s 
church is not, nor ever was an organized 
body. Religious societies are no doubt a 
necessity to the building up of believers in 
their most holy faith and to the propaga¬ 
tion of the truth; but the Christian has no 
right, under the plain teaching of the 
gospels, to turn over the sum total of his 
giving into the hands and judgment of any 
man or set of men. The only emphatic 
Christian giving, the only giving to the 
Lord recognized by our Lord, is giving to 
the poor; and it is doubtful if this can at all 
be done by proxy. As Christian men and 
women, it is no doubt our duty to share in 
our denominational enterprises, to give 
according to our means to the distribution 


HISTORY AND USAGE . 


37 


of the bible, the aid of home and foreign 
missions, and for the work of the society to 
which we belong; but it is our especial duty 
to hold ourselves ready at all times to dis¬ 
tribute to the poor with no stingy hand. 
Christ has assured us of His special favor 
for this class of giving; for any other, He 
has made us no promises. 

It is now proper to claim that tithing is 
not only not in any way enjoined in the 
scriptures, but it is contrary to the spirit of 
the new dispensation. Tithing, under the 
Mosaic code, was an inseparable part of the 
system of salvation by works, and the sacri¬ 
fices on the altar. The sacrifice of Christ 
upon the cross forever closed the making of 
offerings for sin, and at the same time 
closed the duties of the Levitical service. 
The tithes were not divertible to any other 
purpose; unless given to the Levites, they 
cannot be recognized at all as a gift to God. 
Neither, indeed, can they be so recognized, 
unless offered in the sanctuary as a heave 
offering. The law itself allowed no substi¬ 
tutions for its forms and ceremonies. With 


38 TITHES: 

the close of the Aaronic priesthood, the 
Levitical service was forever closed as well. 
Tithing - , as taug-ht, is in furtherance of 
ecclesiasticism, which in all ag-es has been 
one of the chief elements which have made 
for unrig-hteousness and has hindered the 
spread of personal piety among- the people. 
Christ’s teaching's not only ignore it as a 
duty of his followers, but the giving- which 
He enjoined is incompatible therewith. It 
is an attempted resuscitation of the wran¬ 
gles of the early church for and against 
conformity to the law in order to salvation. 
As is tritely said in one of the best and 
latest of the cyclopedias, “Tithes * * * 

are no part of New Testament legis¬ 
lation.” If this be true they should have 
no place in the life of the followers of 
Christ. 

There is one other and important con¬ 
sideration which should not be overlooked. 
The command to the Hebrews that they 
bring one-tenth of their annual increase 
unto the sanctuary, was coupled with the 
promise that while they were obedient to 


HISTORY AND USAGE. 


39 


this command their crops and herds should 
not fail to produce bountifully; and it seems 
impossible for the human mind to dissociate 
the promise of good to accrue to the giver, 
as a result of the giving. It matters not 
how honestly one may try to do so, any 
system of giving must take the form of buy¬ 
ing or earning from God the earthly good 
we crave. But the Christian rule appears 
to be “do good and lend, hoping for noth¬ 
ing again.” The moment the resolution is 
formed for the following out a systematic 
method of giving, just that moment the 
individual attempts to form a contract with 
his Maker similar to the one made by 
Jacob, when he vowed that, ik If God will be 
with me, and will keep me in this way that 
I go, and will give me bread to eat, and 
raiment to put on, so that I come again to 
my father’s house in peace; then, shall the 
Lord be my God;” the exact equivalent to 
saying that if the conditions are not com¬ 
plied with, the Lord should not be his God. 

He who believes in the life, death on the 
cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and 



40 


TITHES: 


who hopes through the merit of His sacri¬ 
fice to be saved from his sins and made a 
partaker of an endless life, certainly has no 
right to make bargains with the Lord 
relative to any earthly good, since we are 
assured on the word of Christ himself, that 
Our Father watches over and cares for our 
every need. The very essence of the rule 
of Christian giving is contained in the 
words of Christ, “Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me.” 






















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